Researching Pixar

Pixar

History, Ownership and Structure

Pixar, also known as Pixar Animation Studios, is a computer animated film studio which is based in California, America. It came about in 1979 but started as a Graphics Group and later on renamed as Pixar, which then was one third of Lucasfilms (film and television production company) however it then became its own company in 1986 due to it getting $10 million in funding from Apple who the co-founder, Steve Jobs, became the main shareholder. The first film which was produced by Pixar in 1995 was Toy Story where Steve Jobs was the executive producer.  Between 1986 and 2006, Pixar was an independent company, then in 2006 it was bought up by The Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion. When it was bought up by Disney, Steve Jobs became a member of the board of directors.

John Lasseter began out working as an animator at Walt Disney however he was fired as he was promoting computer animation, he then went on to join Lucasfilms which then became Pixar. He was overseeing the Pixar Films as he was the executive producer, but as Pixar got taken over by Walt Disney he now does the same thing there.  At Pixar, Lasseter directed films such as Toy Story and A Bugs Life as well as a short film, Luxo Jr which is about a large lamp (Luxo Sr) and small lamp (Luxo Jr) who try to play with a ball, it a way of representing the Pixar logo as well as show the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities. The main intention for the short film was to show it at SIGGRAPH which is an annual computer technology exhibition. Another short film made by Lasseter was Tin Toy (1988), this includes a 'tin one-man-band' that goes by the name Tinny who attempts to escape from a destructive baby named Billy, this as well was used at SIGGRAPH.



The main aspects which allow Pixar to be unique about their working culture and environment is the  fact they take risks and the Pixar building. Jobs had an idea that the building could help encourage collaborations between workers, he got the building designed to help people come put of their offices and meet other people. The building has things such as a fitness suite, viewing rooms, large theatre etc. The idea was that because people naturally isolate themselves, it would force them to make conversation with the others and it's a great way for them to join forces and potentially come up with new ideas.

The Pixar business revolves mainly around customers and what they want to see at the theatre, especially something new. This makes Pixar want to take risks in hope they can please their audience, they have no idea if it'll work, but they try it, which helps them spread their range of ideas further because they have an idea of what the audience want more, but they wouldn't be able to do this without taking the risk in the first place.
They made a film called WALL-E which is love story about a robot in a world full of trash, they had no idea how it would work, but they took the chance and it did.





Types of product made

The type of animated media Pixar make is CGI animated monition pictures. The genres of their films are they're fun, entertaining, adventurous and suitable for any age.

The most significant films made by Pixar were firstly Toy Story, this is because it was Pixar's first feature length computer animated film which was released on November 22nd 1995. It had a budget of $30 million and it's box office was $361 million recieved worldwide and it also gathered many awards including Best Animation, Special Achievement, Best Individual Achievement (Animation, Directing, Music, Producing, Design, Writing), Best Original Score which are just a few of many. There overall reviews were very positive so they went on to make two sequels which were Toy Story 2 which came out in 1999 then Toy Story 3 and that came out in 2010 and came to be among the 50-highest grossing animated films. I personally really enjoyed all the Toy Story films because of their creativity and the fact I grew up with them.
Since Toy Story, Pixar have gone on to create films such as A Bugs Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-e, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brace and Monsters University, all these films have made overwhelming success and combined made more than $6 billion at the worldwide box office.

Not long before Toy Story was created, Pixar were being forced to make TV adverts because of the huge money loss over the past years. Steve Jobs thought he could get some money back by using their animation to create adverts for TV. Pixar was then being approached by some advertising agencies due to John Lasseter's short films, which they wanted them to create commercials for their individual brands.
They recently teamed up with Sky and they used Toy Story characters to create a advertisement for the internet provider, Sky Fibre Broadband. As Toy Story is very popular, it works well using the characters because the majority of the audience will be familiar with it. The idea of the advert is to not only promote Sky 'super fast' fibre broadband service but to also celebrate the arrival of the new 30 minute Toy Story of Terror TV Special. The concept of the advert is Buzz, Woody, Jesse and the others struggling to get online because of their original broadband provider and it results in Sky Fibre being the solution to this.




Technologies and techniques used

Pixar use CGI animation to create their films, this is often used for 2D and stop motion animation however it's 3D CGI animation has because more popular due to Pixar using it for films such as Toy Story. Pixar established itself as a leader in the industry from its CGI films.
Pixar created a rendering system called PhotoRealistic RenderMan, this was so they could render all of their in-house 3D animation from movie productions and to create high-quality images.
Another software they created is called 'Marionette', this is used in-house by Pixar for their animation movies and short films. This software can't be sold and is only able to be used by Pixar.

Pixar also made a graphics designing computer called 'Pixar Image Computer' it was originally developed by the company when it was named Lucasfilms. They also created and used 'Computer animation production system' also known as CAPS, this was to computerize the ink and paint and post production processes of traditionally animated feature films.